COLD AND FUZZY
posted by James Reel
Would you rather leave the theater feeling challenged or comforted? Have it your way, depending on whether you line up at Beowulf Alley or Invisible Theatre:
The Birthday Party, one of Harold Pinter's first and best plays, is the latest fare at Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, and it's not for people who prefer a script with every T neatly crossed, the wet ink carefully blotted, the whole sheaf properly filed away by subject matter. Like certain yeshiva teachers, Pinter is far less interested in giving us answers than in teaching us how to ask questions. …You’ll find the rest of my Tucson Weekly review here, and nearby are my comments on what just opened at Invisible Theatre:
Director Howard Allen and his actors give us a brisk, rather lightweight production; it's played as an absurdist comedy, not an existential thriller. Even the set is bright, sunny and a little goofy with its fishnet decor, not at all oppressive. This is by no means a misreading of Pinter, who leaves The Birthday Party open to all sorts of interpretations, but it's not the closest, deepest reading possible.
From Door to Door, a play about three generations of Jewish women, makes it clear: Saccharine is, indeed, kosher. Yet despite the script's sentimentality and clichés, there's enough honesty and authentic love to lift the story above the level of mundane entertainment.Find out more here.
